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Clampett

Robert Clampett (1913 - 1984) was one of Leon Schlesinger's most important directors. He joined the studio shortly before he was 18 in 1931. He animated with Sid Sutherland, Virgil Ross and Charles M. (Chuck) Jones in Tex Avery's Termite Terrace unit and was promoted to director in 1937. After a great many black and white Porky Pig and Daffy Duck cartoons he inherited Avery's expert animators and was finally able to realize his vision of a more flexible character animation style that allowed his energetic characters to express their innermost feelings in extreme deformations without sacrificing their dimensionality and anatomy.

In honor of Bob Clampett's 100th birthday, I have written about aspects of his Warner Brothers cartoons that have not yet been analyzed in detail. Here, I will provide direct access links to anything I have written on Clampett's films.

There are plenty of Clampettcharacteristics visible in his first color cartoon HORTON HATCHES THE EGG (1942).
Among them are specific expressions with teeth, a suicide gag, a typically silly walk and a one-wing flight cycle.

Morphing is an obvious part of Clampett's animation style. Entire cartoons are based on the gag that a realistically drawn animal suddenly becomes cartoony.
Most of his animal characters (especially Daffy) feel like humans stuck in animal dresses.

Many early cartoons featured objects that behaved like animals. In POLAR PALS (1939) it is also the other way round.
Materiality is not sacred in these cartoons, even guns can appear rubbery at times. There is a trademark gag starting very early based on a gun that spits bullets from a mouth with a tongue.

Clampett's early color cartoons demonstrate how a good color designer can deliver within a set of narrow limitations. This is a good example how to apply contrast of hue, value and saturation in favor of a nicely structured color scheme.

Probably THE most garish WB cartoon. But upon closer inspection the perceived arbitrariness is actually based on rather tight concepts. Color continuity and perspective are more expressionist than consistent.